Savannah River nation's third most toxic, study shows

Dash Coleman

Friday

Jun 27, 2014 at 1:45 PM

SAVANNAH, GA. | A nonprofit research and policy center is calling the Savannah River the third most toxic in the United States after a report released Thursday showed more than 5 million pounds of toxic discharge were released into its waterways in 2010.

Additionally, with more than 10 million pounds of toxic chemicals being dumped into Georgia's waterways in 2012, the state was ranked eighth worst in the nation in the report by Environment Georgia Research & Policy Center.

"[The report] analyzes data that the EPA stores in something called the Toxics Release Inventory that basically looks at the amount of toxic pollution that's in our rivers," said Environment Georgia director Jennette Gayer. "And unfortunately, the Savannah ranks very high on that list."

The only watersheds found to have higher volumes of toxic pollution than the Savannah were the Lower Ohio River-Little Pigeon River, which runs through Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky, and the New River in Virginia.

The South Atlantic-Gulf region had more than 37 million pounds of toxic chemicals dumped in waterways, according to the report.

"This is a wake-up call for us," Gayer said.

The report found DSM Chemicals North America Inc. in Augusta was the biggest polluter in the state, and that it dumped more than 4 million pounds of the toxic pollution into the middle Savannah River.

Though the river stretches from North Carolina to the ocean, the majority of the pollution occurs in the roughly 200-mile stretch between Augusta and Savannah, said Tonya Bonitatibus, Savannah Riverkeeper executive director.

"We have to at least be meeting state standards when it comes to water quality, and we're way far off of that right now," Bonitatibus said. "So just coming back to meeting state standards would be a vast improvement."

She said pollutants that dissolve oxygen in the river's water are the biggest concern.

"The river will actually clean itself, and it will do a pretty good job of it," Bonitatibus said. "We've just got to stop dumping it in."

She said 1.4 million people rely on the Savannah River for drinking water.

About 170,000 people across the river in South Carolina obtain water through the Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority, which draws from the Savannah River at mile 39.

The water is treated and safe to drink, said spokesman Matthew Brady.

In Savannah, the majority of residents' drinking water comes from the Floridan Aquifer, said city spokesman Bret Bell, but some businesses and westside residents drink surface water from the Savannah that's obtained upstream in Effingham County.

Residents can learn more about the treatment processes for city water services as well as those in Beaufort and Jasper counties by going to the agencies' websites.

The report by Environment Georgia found some of the chemicals released into waterways in the state included cancer-causing chemicals, chemicals that persist in the environment and chemicals with the potential to cause reproductive problems.

Environment Georgia recommends policies that include requiring industry to switch from toxic chemicals to safer ones and is calling on the Obama administration to finalize a proposed rule with the EPA clarifying that the Clean Water Act applies to headwater streams, intermittent waterways, isolated wetlands and other waterways.